Brendan McGahon
Question:14 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment his views on whether it is necessary to establish a press council to reinstate and maintain standards in the Irish media. [3608/97]
Written Answers. - Irish Media Standards.
The report of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry, which I published last year, covered a broad spectrum of matters and made recommendations relevant to a number of Departments. At Chapter 7 the report recognised that:
there is unanimous support for the principle that the primary mechanism for complaint must retain as one to the newspaper itself, and must involve rapid communication with the editor, or readers' representative, or newspaper ombudsman by the reader who has a complaint. Any function of an outside ombudsman or press council should therefore necessarily be confined as a further step only to be availed of if a complaint, having been made to the newspaper itself, has not been dealt with to the satisfaction of the complainant.
The commission recommended:
the appointment and funding by the newspaper industry, both indigenous and imported in Ireland, of a wholly independent ombudsman to investigate complaints of breaches of press standards not involving any possible question of defamation provided that such a complaint has first been made to the newspaper and has not been dealt with to the complainant's satisfaction.
It went on to recommend a general scheme for newspapers to follow for the appointment and funding of such an ombudsman.
As I have already indicated to the House, I accept this recommendation of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry. I recently met the industry to discuss with it the course of action I was planning for progressing the commission's recommendations within my Department's area of responsibility and to get its views on these matters. At that meeting I also outlined to it my endorsement of the commission's recommendation for the appointment and funding of a wholly independent ombudsman by the industry itself.